ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A high-level Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation is expected to meet Iraqi officials in Baghdad late Wednesday for talks on the Kurdistan Region's budget share, non-oil revenues, and other outstanding financial disputes between Erbil and the federal government.

The delegation is headed by Omed Sabah, head of the KRG's Diwan of the Council of Ministers, and includes cabinet members, as well as advisory and technical officials.

The New Region understands that the primary purpose of the visit is to discuss the implementation of the new Iraqi government's agenda regarding the Kurdistan Region's constitutional financial entitlements and resolving long-running disputes over the federal budget and non-oil revenues.

One of the delegation's main demands is that the Kurdistan Region's share of the federal budget be calculated according to the results of Iraq's late-2024 census, under which the Region accounts for 14.1 percent of the country's population. KRG officials argue that Baghdad should therefore transfer the Region's full budget allocation, rather than limiting payments primarily to public sector salaries.

The KRG has been pressing the federal government to adopt the census results in determining Erbil's budget share, with the census placing the Kurdistan Region's population at 14.1 percent of Iraq's total population of 46 million.

The delegation is also expected to discuss the mechanism for transferring the Kurdistan Region's non-oil revenues, including the monthly payment of 120 billion Iraqi dinars to Baghdad.

Budget allocations, public sector salaries, domestic revenues, and oil exports have remained the main points of contention between Erbil and Baghdad for years.

In September, the two sides reached an agreement aimed at easing some of their financial disputes and ensuring that public employees did not bear the consequences.

Under the agreement, the KRG committed to exporting its oil through Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) and transferring 120 billion dinars per month to Baghdad as the federal government's share of the Region's non-oil revenues, in exchange for regular monthly salary payments to Kurdistan Region civil servants.

In June, Erbil and Baghdad also held talks on outstanding financial issues, including the mechanism for sharing the Kurdistan Region's non-oil revenues with the federal government.